Women group made to apologise for performing yoga at Taj Mahal

Agra: A group of five women were made to apologise for performing yoga on the red sandstone platform of the Taj Mahal and also for making a video of the same in violation of rules.

The incident took place on Sunday.

While four women performed ‘surya namaskar’ on the platform, the fifth was making the video.

“We came to know about the yoga being performed on red sandstone platform on Sunday by a group of women, four of them from Agra and one from Aligarh,” said Prince Vajpayee, senior assistant conservator at Taj Mahal for Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Agra office.

“On being questioned, these five women expressed ignorance about the restriction over such activities related to campaigning and promotion. We took a written apology from them and allowed them to go,” he said.

When contacted, superintending archaeologist for Agra Circle of ASI Raj Kumar Patel said it seemed the women were preparing a reel for social media.

However, there was no information if they were professional influencers or YouTubers, he said.

This comes close on the heels of an incident a day earlier in which a man was seen performing “sheershasan” (headstand) on the white marble platform around the main mausoleum of the Taj Mahal.

A video of the incident had gone viral.

Expressing concern over such rule violations, president of Approved Guides Welfare Association Deepak Daan while stressing on need for CISF being more vigilant, said it was the responsibility of everyone to check such incidents .

He asked guides of the association to make videos and inform ASI of CISF officials if they came across such incidents.